Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nakia Baker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nakia, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I’ve always wanted my own sneakers and clothing line. I had such a fascination with sneakers that I just started collecting them. I had every pair of Jordans and Timberland’s Junior Field Boots with a couple of other fly fresh footwear. I just didn’t know where to start. Years and years later while on active duty in the United States Army while at a front lobby post; I observed people that work there go in and out. I’m wondering what do they actually do because I only see them come in for a couple of hours and then they are going home. They come in at 10am, go to lunch at 11am, come back from lunch at about 12:30pm or 1pm and then they leave to go home at 2:30pm or 3pm. One day I asked one of them what is it that they do and they were like that they are a contractor. I said a contractor for the military prison’s mailroom? And the person winked. I was like man I’m in the wrong field and my day is longer and I do not get paid no where near of a contracted mailroom worker for the federal govt. I wake up about 9:30am, have physical training (PT) at 11am, for to lunch at about 1pm, be at guard mount (briefing before we go into the military prison to work), shift starts at 2pm, get off at 10pm and have an end of shift briefing up until 11pm. I was in the military police corps as an Internment Resettlement Specialist (Correctional Officer) working all these hours for no real money. Now here I am on my post in the front lobby just sitting there bored and asking myself is this life lol. So I just started thinking and writing things down like names that I liked that I thought would be a good name for a brand. I wrote like 10 different names and then I started thinking about logos. Once I got the free time did a trademark search and landed Legacy Elite. I paid for the trademark to keep the name and I started looking for shoe designers. This was a long process especially when you don’t have connections or know anyone that can draw out what your vision is. I started in 2010 thinking about this and I got frustrated so I stepped back for a couple of years. So in 2012, I found someone on Fiverr that drew a pair of sneakers for me. Now the the next obstacle was finding someone to make the shoe so that took long. I was like man this is tough, but I stayed persistent and later on like in 2015 or 2016 I found someone that actually makes sneakers but instead of using your own personal design you had to use their blank models and fulfill different required steps in order to submit your own design. So once I designed their base model I was like I need some clothing items to match the shoes and that’s what I did. I did photo shoots for the sneakers and then in 2018 I had an all white launch party to introduce my brand. I kept doing photoshoots, I had a popup shop and then a fashion show. I’ve learned that starting from scratch and not having any fame it’ll be tough, but I learned that people love to see items up front to be able to touch and feel products because quality is everything. And before they spend money on someone or something that is not popular they become the biggest critics. There’s nothing wrong with that, I respect that! I had to get through the doubting phase and ask myself what do I have to lose? I just had to do execute because if I keep thinking about it and planning then it’ll never happen so I took a huge leap and just was like here it is. And now I’m here where I am at right now and I have dug deeper beyond clothing stores and working on getting government contracts. It was rough not knowing where to begin but sometimes you have to just take a leap and just be lead in the flow.

Nakia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m from Brooklyn, NY born and raised. I played basketball and received scholarships to play basketball in schools from Junior High School to College. I served in the military US Army as a Military Police Officer and now a Federal Correctional Officer. Deep in my heart I was already in the industry because of my unique style and fashion. I always had the exclusives and i loved to shop and flaunt. You couldn’t tell me I wasn’t a fashionista. lol So I felt that this is just right for me. Everyone including myself loves new clothes, especially fresh fly clothes. Another reason why I wanted to create a clothing line/brand is because I wanted clothes that my people can fit and get into without feeling insecure about their weight. A lot of European clothing brands are not designed to fit black women. I remember when I was about 15 years old and in shape and I went to True Religion and I couldn’t even get into a pair of pants. I was in great shape and curvy and still couldn’t fit in a pair of jeans. And I remember how that made me feel. I wanted to lose more weight, but if I had then I would’ve looked sick. Also there were a lot of clothing brands whose clothes that were made cheap and easily rips. If I pay 100.00 for jeans I’m expecting them to last for many years. We also didn’t have any all black clothing brands. We had Baby Phat, Sean Jean, Apple Bottoms, FUBU, Karl Kani, Rocawear and maybe a few more, but didn’t last long like it should have. The European brands been around for decades and still to this day popular. FUBU is back and collaborated with the All Black Brand Actively Black which is dope. We need more of our own brands that are just for Black people not limiting who wears them but it is made for Black men and women. Legacy Elite is designed to compliment all curves, shapes and figures and the material is rich in quality. My customers would be proud and I offer a service to my customers like no other so that they know they will always get what they paid for and their monies worth. So if something happens to go wrong with an item they can always depend on Legacy Elite to make it right and replace any item that is defective. My brand is made to compliment and comfort the consumer and the quality of clothes are so great that they will never be disappointed and will always be warm in cold weather.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I don’t have a huge following, but I am slowly building an audience on social media. Content is everything! I have don’t many photoshoots and posted pictures of models in my brand. I do small clips because I’ve learned that people will watch videos and clips. The advice I have for people starting out like me is to never get discouraged and keep posting content. You’ll be surprised at who is watching!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I am my story and I was born with resilience because I don’t stop. The key is believing in yourself and believing in your products. I’ve come to the realization that there will be good days and bad days and you have to learn how to stay humble and embrace both good and bad. Nothing is perfect so you will encounter difficulties and hardships, but the difficulties and hardships should help you have and find different approaches to bounce back and to overcome all shortcomings and difficulties!

Contact Info:

• Website: HTTPS://www.LegacyEliteWear.com
• Instagram: @_Legacy_Elite
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/LegacyElite
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCQuJG-wjGNoSIfD4HQ7Sbfw

Image Credits
CH THE DIRECTOR MC ELECTRIC ARTISTRY RELENTLESS STUDIOS MNIMN PHOTOGRAPHY